Contents

History

GTA Liberty City Stories

The use of "Fruit" to represent Apple is first heard in GTA Liberty City Stories during LCFR show The Electron Radio, where a FruitOS user group called "Fruits" (slang for homosexuals) is mentioned to be involved a bitter rivalry with the TOS user group called "Tossers" (slang for someone who masturbates excessively).

The FruitOS/TOS rivalry is a reference to the real-life Windows/OSX user rivalry, although in reality it was least apparent circa 1998, when Apple had only begun emerging from a decade-long slump and was not a significant competitor to Microsoft at the time (having just released the iMac G3 in 1998).

GTA Vice City Stories

In GTA Vice City Stories, a Fruit LC computer is advertised on both the radio as well as billboards in Vice City and the game's manuals. The casette-loading, BBS-equipped computer is mentioned, among others, to feature an excessively small 8-inch two-tone display and "near infinite" 18k of memory, and cost an exorbitant $5,000.

Although the Fruit LC is clearly a parody of the Macintosh, specifically the Macintosh 128K, the name is also similar to that of the Macintosh LC, "LC" being "low cost" in short. Its radio commercial also parodies Apple's famous "1984" commercial for the Macintosh, while the "BYE" displayed on the Fruit LC's screen on billboard advertising is a stab at Apple Macintosh's famous "hello" image on advertisements. The Fruit LC's $5,000 price tag is double that of the Macintosh 128K's original selling price of $2,495.

According to in-game dialog on Wave 103, Adam First mentions he has finally managed to program a flying triangle that explodes into pixels on the screen; the Fruit LC is mentioned to operate with BASIC programming.

Fruit Computers logo in GTA Vice City Stories, circa 1984.

Fruit LC advertisement from the GTA Vice City Stories manual.

GTA IV

In Grand Theft Auto IV, Fruit's company structure is revealed in detail; the CEO of the company circa GTA IV is Doug Hatchet, who has outsourced all of his employees overseas, except himself, resulting in the Fruit Computers headquarters being solely occupied by Hatchet along with a photocopier that does not work and a stapler without staples.

Fruit is depicted in game to be advertising the Fruit Cocoon (a parody of the Mac Mini), and also mentions an iFruit Phone (a parody of the iPhone) on their website, where it still trumps up its rivalry with TOS (stylizing "Tosser" as "To$$er"). Fruit also has a physical presence in a warehouse in Port Tudor, Alderney, where its signage reveals the company to have been established in 1975. Fruit computers can also be seen advertised in various computer shops throughout the game, and is one of the sponsors for the WTF musical.

Among the updated Star Junction billboards in Episodes from Liberty City for GTA IV, there is an advertisement for a Fruit product known as the uHelmet. The advertisement depicts a man sitting on a toilet, wearing a helmet rigged up to a car battery, and is stylised as a parody of iPod advertisements.

Although not explicitly mentioned to be a Fruit software, the GUI of Internet browsers used in all the computers in-game bears some resemblance to the Safari web browser.

GTA Chinatown Wars

In GTA Chinatown Wars, the player gets a Fruit Laptop in every safehouse (pink in the DS version, black in the PSP version). The player is not able to go on the internet, but it features e-mail and Rockstar Games Social Club comparability. Also, many characters, including Wu Lee, have fruitcomputers.com email accounts.

The FruitOS desktop in the DS rendition of GTA Chinatown Wars. The top taskbar is similar to that found in the Mac OS X operating system.

GTA V

Fruit products are featured in GTA V. An iFruit smartphone, closely modeled after the iPhone is used by Michael De Santa and the GTA Online protagonist. In pre-release materials alone, an iFruit phone more closely modeled after the iPhone can be seen on a game art featuring a bikini-clad woman using the phone's camera function; a Fruit computer clearly based on the iMac also appears throughout the game. An app released by Rockstar Games on iOS devices called "iFruit" allows players to customise in-game vehicles via Los Santos Customs and create custom license plates. The app also allows the player to train Chop, earning new collars and teaching him new tricks.